Apology Against the Calumnies of the Louvain Theologians

and receives his accusers, and obtains the opportunity for defense, in order to wash away the crimes that are brought against him. Nothing, therefore (says Moses), should be judged, estimated, or believed rashly, before the other side has been heard. Hence, it was accepted by the Romans from the laws of the Athenians in the Twelve Tables to hear both sides in a like manner, from which the consul Martianus left a writing concerning those who must be sought as the accused, so that we might not condemn anyone without a heard cause. In ancient times, not even tyrants judged a case unknown. C. Caligula is praised, who closed both ears to an informer. Alexander is praised, who kept one ear for the defender. And the divine Adrianus wrote back to Aufidius Severus that no one should be condemned on suspicions alone. For one ought not to be made a suspect, but [the guilt must be] discovered. And the emperor Constantinus says: A judge, while examining a criminal, should not pronounce a sentence before he himself confesses, or is convicted by innocent witnesses. And the blessed pope Eleutherius says: Let nothing be done against anyone who is accused without a suitable and legitimate accuser. God Himself, whose knowledge is not deceived, before He judged the protoplastum the first-formed man, Adam, spoke to him and extracted a confession of the crime; intending to judge the cities of the Sodomorum Sodomites, He says: I will go down and see whether they have completed by their works the cry that has come to Me, or if it is not so, that I may know. If this faculty of answering is granted to me, I will show that I have never written anything assertively, to be-